About 26.57 percent of doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, and pharmacists (health workers) are unemployed despite severe staff shortages facing African hospitals and clinics.
Despite a tripling of the overall health worker stock from 1.6 million in 2013 to 5.1 million in 2022—according to the latest World Health Organisation Health Workforce Report—many skilled and qualified professionals remain unemployed or underemployed, threatening both their livelihoods and the health of the population.
At the same time, one of every 10 regional doctors or nurses works abroad, while around 42 percent of health workers intend to migrate, with the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Ireland, and Australia being the top destinations.
This leaves the density of doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, and pharmacists at 27 per 10,000 population as of 2022, from 23 per 10,000 in 2018 and 11 per 10,000 in 2013.
Countries including Seychelles, South Africa, and Namibia have the highest densities.
Nigeria’s healthcare workforce of about 400,000 serves a population of around 220 million.
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, it has a current ratio of four doctors per 10,000 people and 88 nurses per 100,000.
Tope Osundare, president, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) told BusinessDay that many doctors are not actively seeking employment within Nigeria.
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Job advertisements often go unfilled, and hospitals frequently struggle to recruit physicians.
This reluctance stems from several factors. Burnout is prevalent among medical professionals, discouraging others from entering such a demanding environment.
Furthermore, inadequate remuneration remains a significant deterrent; until salaries and benefits improve for doctors and other healthcare workers, staffing shortages will persist, Osundare said.
“One of the reasons for this drawback is the burnout being faced by colleagues and nobody wants to stick out their neck into this. The other side to this is the issue of poor remuneration and until there is improved remuneration for doctors and other health care workers, inadequate manpower will be unpreventable,” Osundare said.
While the government has streamlined the employment process, facilitating the replacement of departing doctors, the fundamental problem of low application rates endures, he explained.
Many doctors, especially NARD members, are increasingly choosing to pursue opportunities abroad, focusing on foreign medical exams and emigration.
In late January, BusinessDay reported that the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) was grappling with a fresh shortage of junior resident doctors, raising concerns about the hospital’s capacity to provide timely and efficient medical care.
Departments including internal medicine, the neonatal unit, haematology, and paediatrics are operating without junior resident doctors, BusinessDay has learned.
The dwindling number of resident doctors, attributed to brain drain, poor working conditions, and inadequate payment, has placed increased pressure on the hospital’s existing workforce.
Patients and medical staff are feeling the strain, as longer wait times and heavier workloads threaten to compromise healthcare delivery.
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Inyene Obong Akpan, a junior medical doctor in a tweet expressed concern that there is a significant decline in the number of doctors pursuing residency programmes in Nigeria.
She described it as a serious challenge that requires urgent action, suggesting that widespread complacency is hindering progress.
“We keep attacking doctors. We are in trouble. LUTH as large as it is doesn’t have a junior resident doctor in internal medicine at least for the time I was there. The masses don’t understand when we keep shouting, striking, and clamouring. We need to hold our government accountable,” Akpan stated.
Wasiu Adeyemo, chief medical director of the hospital had earlier raised an alarm that the hospital was inching close to chronic understaffing during the 2025 budget defense session with the House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions.
He said the rate of daily resignations recorded is likely to leave government investment in medical infrastructure without the manpower to operate them.
The African Region’s health workforce (HWF) is projected to grow by an estimated 2 million workers between 2022 and 2030, with doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, and dentists comprising 75 percent of this increase.
In 2022, the region’s health workforce needs, including community health workers, were estimated at 9.75 million to adequately address the disease burden and population health needs.
This demand is forecast to rise to 11.82 million by 2030.
The report recommends that countries should expand health workforce education and decent employment, and ensure retention towards halving the needs-based shortage within a decade
They should also transform health workforce education to become competency-based to address the population’s health needs better.
Countries should implement the principles of the Africa HWF investment charter towards expanding and sustaining adequate investments in the health workforce by applying a multisectoral approach.
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